Hannah Snow
Lady Hannah Snow is the protagonist of ''Soulmate'','' the sixth book in L.J. Smith's Night World series. She is an Old Soul, the soulmate of Thierry Descouedres, and is a prominent figure within Circle Daybreak, acting as a co-leader alongside Thierry and Grandma Harman. Appearance Hannah is described as being rather lovely, with "straight fair hair and...clear gray eyes". Her most notable feature thought is a "strawberry color" birthmark across her left cheek; a "permanent" mark on her face that even cosmetic surgery was unable to remove. The birthmark is in truth a "psychic brand", caused accidentally by her soulmate Thierry, which Hannah has retained through every one of her lives. It is also the tell-tale sign of her identity, both for Thierry and Maya. Births and Deaths Hannah, as an Old Soul, has been born numerous times in different roles throughout the chain of life. It is unknown when exactly Hannah was born but it is well known that she was born around the Stone Age, during the time of hunting and wearing skins and living in tribes. She was first born as Hana of the Three Rivers and it was in this lifetime that she met her soulmate, Thierry Descourdes (then called Theorn). Theorn, a newly made vampire, was captured by her tribe after being caught drinking the blood of a child, Ryl. However, Hana, who pitied him and realized that he is driven to drink blood against his will, freed him, although he was hunted down soon after by the tribe. Ultimately Theorn, due to lack of control, and a violent desire for blood caused by torture, slaughtered the entire tribe. He also accidentally kills Hana, a mistake which Thierry pays a heavy price for over several centuries. As she laid dying, the two realized they are soulmates but it is too late to save her; Hana forgives him for her death and, as her last wish, asks that he never kill again. Thierry held her as she died but, upon brushing a finger against her cheek, he left a bloody mark along the cheekbone; this mark later becomes a "psychic brand", a birthmark which appears on the face of every single one of Hana's reincarnations. It is obvious that Hana was held in some respect during this life and was considered the primary candidate as the next leader of her tribe after the wizened Old Mother, the tribe's spiritual authority and co-leader. She was also described as having a beautiful singing voice, "like crystal"; this voice is later heard by the modern-day Hannah when she begins to recall her past lives. Hannah's second lifetime was spent in Egypt as Ha-nakhat, a maiden priestess of the goddess Isis. She was a young woman of great beauty and charm, who resided in a temple dedicated to Isis. Here she was reunited with Thierry, and was eventually seduced by his charm and the sadness in his eyes, despite priestesses being forbidden from having relations with men. Maya, the first vampire, who was obsessed with Thierry and bitterly jealous of Hana, found Ha-nakhat and planted a seed of doubt in the girl's mind regarding Thierry, especially as Ha-nakhat had allowed Thierry to drink her blood as a donor, something only noted in evil creatures. Maya even goes so far as to accuse Thierry of wanting only Ha-nakhat's life force. Later on, Maya attacked and killed her in the temple, taking on Thierry's form and carefully imitating Hana's previous death at Thierry's hands. Maya's continued deception and murder of Hana across hundreds of years ultimately causes the girl to presume in future lives that it was Thierry who was constantly killing her before age 17. Eventually, Hana is reborn in 20th century Montana as the teenager Hannah Snow. It is mentioned that, in her previous lives, Hannah has been a slave, a princess, a warrior and more, although exact details of these lives are unknown. Fortunately, Hannah eventually recovers skills and abilities that she once held in each life, which prove crucial later in the novel ''Soulmate. 20th Century In the 20th century, Hana's latest incarnation, Hannah Snow, starts finding notes in her own handwriting saying "Dead before Seventeen", "Remember the Three Rivers - Do Not Throw This Note Away", and then more recently, "He's coming," yet Hannah doesn't remember writing the notes. Concerned she may be going insane, she goes to a therapist, Paul, where, during an initial session, the office is unexplanably attacked by werewolves. More of Hannah's latent memories resurface, manifesting in the form of mental voices in differing tones: one with a tone resembling a dark wind, which remind her that werewolves are vulnerable to silver, and a second, crystalline voice which prevents her from killing one of the werewolves, opting instead to injure it and force it into retreating. Hannah realizes that the other wolf, a female (in truth the werewolf Lupe Acevedo) is protecting her from the wolf Hannah had injured, warning Paul not to harm her; both wolves escape the residence. To get the the bottom of the goings-on, Paul decides to put her under hypnosis, beginning a past life regression. During the process, Paul learns from the entranced Hannah that she herself has been writing the notes about being dead before seventeen. Hannah also reveals her subconscious knowledge of the Night World and her recollections of Thierry, whom she not only tells Paul outright is "not human", but that she both loves Thierry and fears him, as he is the one who has been causing her death in each lifetime. Paul offhandedly asks Hannah to go back to when she first met Thierry, prompting her to go back to her first life, discovering that she is the reincarnation of Hana of the Three Rivers, a girl who lived during the Stone Age. During the first session, Hannah, at Paul's insistence, mentally becomes Hana again, describing her life among the tribe in great detail, in addition to her first encounter with Thierry, whom her tribe discovered and captured after learning that Thierry (a newly created vampire who had not really drunk blood since his revival) in a frenzy of bloodlust had attacked and fed from Ryl, a young relative of Hana. Hana insists that Arno, the co-leader of the tribe and leader of the hunters, bring Thierry to be examined by Old Mother, the tribe's spiritual leader, suspecting that Thierry might be from the spirit world. However, to Hana's disappointment, Old Mother cannot identify what Thierry is, and outwardly agrees with Arno's decision to destroy the vampire the next day, although Old Mother mentions that perhaps during the night she may be inspired by the gods in terms of what to do. Fearing that Thierry will be executed, before dawn Hana goes to Thierry's cage-prison inside of the caves and releases him. Being reluctant to leave, Hana forces Thierry to leave the cave by "herding" him, using his fear of hurting others again to force him out. Once outside, Hana tries to present him with food and water, prompting him to flee, but Thierry rejects both, making Hana realize he needs blood alone to survive. Bravely, she offers him her throat but Thierry, touched, resists his thirst and instead kisses Hana's hand as a sign of respect and then departs. Hana is left behind with a sadness and a strange foreboding that Thierry will die. Reunion with Thierry Hannah is broken out of the trance by Thierry himself, who had been informed by Lupe of her whereabouts and had come to find her, hiding below the office window. Realizing that she was reliving her past life, he used mental suggestion to awaken her, as Paul himself couldn't. Hannah returns home, shaken by her new revelations, and is there reunited with Thierry, who confirms the truth of her reincarnations and of the Night World's existence, including his identity as a vampire. He additionally reveals his role both in awakening her from the regression and in influencing her to come out of the house to see him. However, as the two reconcile and acknowledge their love, Hannah is quickly reminded of Thierry's role in her death over the years after he, at her insistence, drinks her blood, during which she sees a vision of a woman with dark hair warning her that Thierry is "evil". Furious, she demands that he leave and never try to contact her again. However, before departing, Thierry gives her a black rose ring, the symbol of the made vampires, which had been enchanted with protection spells. Hannah accepts the ring, although she later disposes of it. The night after Thierry's departure, Hannah is greeted by another guest: the first vampire, Maya, and the woman from Hannah's vision. Maya goes inside with Hannah and introduces herself as a vampire, in addition to being the one who converted Thierry into one. She warns Hannah not to trust him, as she claims Thierry can be obsessive, but Hannah, despite her own doubts regarding Thierry, is also deeply suspicious of Maya, whom she asks to leave. Maya soon returns, disguised as Thierry, and attacks Hannah, who manages to fend Maya off using a pencil, stabbing Maya's hand. Hannah attempts to go for help but is weakened by blood loss from Maya's attack. Fortunately, she is found by Thierry, but Hannah, now completely distrusting, demands that Thierry leave her alone. Thierry agrees to Hannah's demand, although he helps her to her friend Chess's house when she collapses. As Thierry carries her, before losing consciousness Hannah is able to see Thierry's hand, free of a pencil wound, and finally realizes that Thierry wasn't the one who attacked her earlier, and that he might not even be the one killing her all those times. This is confirmed when Hannah dreams of her first death and of her forgiving Thierry for murdering her that first time. During a second regression, Hannah relives her second life as the Egyptian priestess Ha-nakhat. She recalls her first meeting with Maya, as well as her death in this second life. However, this time, Hannah is able to see both as herself and as Ha-nakhat, and figures out that, through illusion spells, it was Maya and not Thierry who had been killing her over and over again all this time. Regretting her earlier repulsion of Thierry, Hannah recovers the black rose ring and follows him to Las Vegas. She is almost harmed by a vampire on the way, but upon recognizing the black rose ring, he fearfully brings Hannah to Thierry's home, where she is welcomed by Lupe and Nilsson, Thierry's driver. Thierry himself, however, is not home, but Hannah is allowed to stay until his return. Lupe later introduces her to several members of Circle Daybreak, the soulmate couples of the previous 5 books: Thea Harman and Eric Ross, James Rassmussen and Poppy North, Gillian Lennox and David Blackburn, Rashel Jordan and John Quinn, and Ash Redfern. Hannah takes to them immediately, and, in her anxiety over Maya and Thierry, she is comforted by Ash, who confides his own course of redemption to her when she notes that he is not with his soulmate (Mary-Lynette Carter). However, soon after, Hannah encounters an enormous bat, the shapeshifted Maya, who kidnaps her. Hannah quickly loses consciousness. Hannah awakens in an abandoned mineshaft, under the Nevada desert, tied to a support beam. Maya, who believes that Thierry and Hannah planned to reunite again behind Maya's back, comes to the mine and reveals her plans to turn Hannah into a vampire as, when vampires die, they cease to exist. Furthermore, they are not reincarnated; Maya muses that this means vampires have no souls. Once Hannah became a vampire, Maya intends to stake her, which would stop Hannah's reincarnation cycle, resulting in the permanent separation of Thierry and Hannah, as well as Maya's own triumph. To Hannah's horror, while she was unconscious, Maya had already initiated the change, showing that Hannah's features have grown more vampiric, and that her birthmark has nearly vanished due to the accelerated healing caused by vampire blood. Maya theorizes that one more exchange of blood would end the process, and departs. Luckily, recalling several abilities gained from her previous lives, Hannah is able to free herself. She is given an opportunity to kill Maya, who returns, but she refuses to kill the vampire matriarch, to which Maya reacts with genuine surprise. Thierry then arrives to recover Hannah, and informs Maya that, despite her efforts, he will always love Hannah, even if Maya does complete her plan to destroy Hannah permanently. Additionally, even if she killed both of them, nobody she "hated" would be a witness to it. Defeated, Maya is at first stunned at her own failure, but then reacts violently, intending to kill Thierry instead. Reacting quickly, to save him, Hannah stakes Maya with a wooden shaft from behind. Maya regards Hannah's action with a kind of respectful laughter before she dies. After this, Thierry and Hannah, along with the rest of Circle Daybreak, leave the mine. Final Outcome Soulmate ends with Hannah in Las Vegas, witnessing the dawn of her seventeenth birthday, something she'd never experienced in any of her other lifetimes. Alone with Thierry, he asks her if she would like to fully convert to being a made vampire to remain with him. However, she decides to remain human since, being an Old Soul, she will be reborn again, and Thierry will find her new reincarnation, reuniting them once again. However, this time there will be no danger from Maya, allowing the two to live in peace. In Witchlight, she is referred to by Keller as "Lady Hannah", indicating that Hannah has a prominent position in Circle Daybreak. There is a possibility that her title of Lady means that she has finally married Thierry, but this is not confirmed nor consistently implied. Appearances *''Soulmate'' Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Humans